Should someone be fired from their job and threatened with violence, torture, even death because they have an opinion different than yours? Of course not. And yet, that is what Adam M. Smith of Arizona says happened to him.

Adam Smiths life has been turned upside-down in the 36 hours that followed his posting the video of his protest at Chick-fil-A, which involved letting a young, female employee at the drive-thru know what he thinks about the company. (You can watch the video here.)

We had an exclusive conversation with Smith where he shared his side of the story. Heres a taste of what he said:

He has lost his job as Chief Financial Officer at Vante. (Smith claims that he was not given a chance to really explain himself before being terminated)

His family has been threatened with violence and death. (At one point, his email account was getting 3 messages a minute, mostly vulgar and threatening)

Because his home address was made public, he cannot live in his house. (And Mr. Smith is a married father of four  two of his children are adopted, special needs kids.)

Smith said that his original intent was to follow guidelines laid out in an online video, which included quoting a scripture.

Before the original Blaze story ran and then again following the news of Adams termination, I reached out to him for further comment and clarification. I wanted to see if he wanted to apologize or possibly speak with Rachel, the girl hes seen berating in the video. There was no comment or reply from Adam until early this morning.

Mr. Smith asked me to watch the video that he claims inspired him to act. It is a YouTube clip from a Christian writer named Jackson Pearce. In the video seen below, Ms. Pearce explains her thoughts on Chick-fil-A and suggests that people go to the restaurant on August 1st and ask for a large water and mention Proverbs 25:21, and if you video your protest, she will post it as a response.

Smiths initial reasoning for his protest at Chick-fil-A springs from his belief that same-sex marriage is a Human Rights issue and that any laws denying it must be changed. And he chose to protest against the restaurant using the method suggested in the above video.

After he returned home from his now-infamous protest, Smith posted the video as a response to the YouTube video on Ms. Pearces page. He claimed that this was the first video he ever posted on YouTube. He later walked that statement back saying that he had only posted a few personal family videos, but nothing of a political or protest nature.

Shortly after his video reply hit YouTube, Smith claims that threats started hitting his email inbox. Threats to his family and to himself. So, he removed the video as quickly as he could, but it had already been saved and was in the process of being re-posted by others. One re-poster is tied to the group Stormfront.org. In fact, before he actually spoke with me on the telephone, at 9:34 this morning, Adam sent an email stating:

read this "

The link he attached to that email took me to a blog site from someone who identifies themselves as Florida Squeezed. The headline of the post read:

I was a bit confused by this. Was Smith now claiming that he was the victim of cyber-bullies that he claims are Neo-Nazis? No. He wanted me to see how Stormfront.org had re-posted his initial video and also added his contact information. As the video went viral, the threats and emails increased.

My inbox was getting 2-3 emails per minute, he explained via phone. He added later: Im not even at my house, you dont know that. I cant live in my house right now. Im in an undisclosed location right now.

I wondered about his terminations. Did both the biotech manufacturing company (Vante) and the college react without giving a hearing?

According to him, The college has not fired me at this point.

When asked if there is any chance to appeal his abrupt termination from Vante, Smith said he doesnt not have legal counsel and thus has no idea.

So often in cases like this, a lawyer or law firm will step up and offer to assist, so I wondered if anyone had made such a proposal:

I dont think anyone can find me right now. I cant find the emails through my ***** account because it took me an hour to find your email, and I knew you did it, I knew you sent it, and it took me an hour.

Smith started reading off some of the offensive emails he was receiving, telling me how people were referring to him and his family:

Im a fa**ot, Im so glad you got fired, its so funny, I hope youre slitting your wrists, your kids have a horrible example of a father, ya know, all kinds of real tolerant stuff . Ya know, they have free speech so great they can do whatever they want they can do it.

So given all the fallout, I wanted to know if he cared to see Rachel again. If you encountered her again, what would you say to her? I asked.

I will say to her what I will say to her and I will figure out what the right words are, he responded. And then he shed a little more light, saying that he had already gone back to Chick-fil-A the next morning to talk to Rachel.

She refused to talk to him.

I wanted to see if she was OK, thats all, he explained. She was actually working there, and her manager went to get her and she wouldnt come back.

If all of these jerks had just read what Mr.Cathy has said they would have been better off.
The man said He Believes in the Traditional Bible definition of Marriage,That Being between a Man a A woman,he did not say he was Anti Gay or hated Gays or any of that crap.

Don’t count on it. The media will turn him into the victim, make him a hero/martyr, Vante will be forced to re-hire him (after paying him damages), and the girl in the drive-thru window will have to apologize to him.

Adam said in his ‘apology’ that he originally wanted to use a Bible quote. This is the newest liberal ‘thing’. They want to use the Bible against us. They think it’s cool - like a grade school taunt... Maybe we should be half as cool and find self-serving quotes from gay people... and use them. Gads, dealing with liberals is like dealing with mean spirited 4th graders...

Good recap of his future chances in the business world. I’m sure he and his wife understand this completely. Can you imagine their private discussions about now? Divorce and estrangement can’t be far behind. His life is ruined.

My company’s business conduct code requires us to maintain the same corporate values on and off the job. That is to say that you can be terminated if you embarrass the company. If this jerk’s company had a similar policy they were following the corporate policies that someone at his level should have been well aware.

" ... he is trying to play the victim...they are always the aggrieved party because the very fact that anyone in the WORLD has an opinion that is different than their own causes them immense pain."

This reminds me of Nancy "Giant Gavel" Pelosi and the black caucus nasties using the public entrance that they never use in order to march through the Tea Party crowd in hopes of provoking an incident when they voted on the health care bill for the 'made for television president'.

64
posted on 08/04/2012 7:22:24 AM PDT
by Baynative
(A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for others)

"Adam said in his apology that he originally wanted to use a Bible quote. This is the newest liberal thing. They want to use the Bible against us. They think its cool - like a grade school taunt... Maybe we should be half as cool and find self-serving quotes from gay people... and use them. Gads, dealing with liberals is like dealing with mean spirited 4th graders..."

If you can really school them, though, they get frustrated...select NT passages and Proverbs 31:10 usually cast them out...

This bunch was a little different but too clever for their own good. They wanted to use Proverbs 25:21 going through drive-thrus, at the behest of this squirrely GenY chick JacksonPearce (and Smith couldn't even remember the verse in the drive-thru! And yet he called himself a 'Christian for 25 years up till last year' in another video...read yer Bible much, Adam?); but they all neglected to read ahead -- Proverbs 25:21 was meant for us, not for them:

I fell for the earlier, teaser article at The Blaze. Returned to find the full report to be a layer cake of nuttiness. All it needs is a dose of chemtrails and 911 truth for it to be worthy of a cross-post at Alex Jones.

Not nutty enough for the author, he had to add the creepy opinion piece at the very end. Reveling in that stalker code phrase, “...check on Rachael.” Made my skin crawl. That article’s last paragraph alone could qualify as evidence to gain a protective order in my home state.

So, this whole Smith thing turns out to be nothing about gay. It’s all about rabid atheism, and the zeal of a new convert to darkness. The article malevolently tries to divert us, IMO.

His family has been threatened with violence and death. (At one point, his email account was getting 3 messages a minute, mostly vulgar and threatening Then riddle me this Mr. Smith, did you report these indicents to the authorities? The FBI has a division dedicated to investigating internet crimes, you know. Personally, I despise Ben & Jerry's for their views and the causes they schtump for, and you couldn't pay me to eat their ice cream no matter how good it is. But if I'm at my local WallyWorld or any store that sells there stuff I don't give the emplyees a hard time either. Grow up moron!

I wanted to see if she was OK, thats all, he explained. She was actually working there, and her manager went to get her and she wouldnt come back.Considering the controversy thats erupted, you cant really blame her. She is an attractive young lady, but maybe she was restraining herself from body slamming this clown.

They want to use the Bible against us. Yes, the oldest trick in the book. We can play the same game, using some of their words against them. The late Sen. Hubert Humphrey, a big time lib if there ever was one once said that your right to free speech does NOT mean I have an obligation to listen. Or to quote a lyric from one of Billy Joel's(still in the tank for 0) biggest hits, "you can speak your mind/ but not on my time...".

Agreed. She did an amazing job not firing back, but her face definately told the tale. She did take it personally - especially towards the end when he got into the "how do you live with yourself" angle.

He thinks that someone should not be fired for having an opinion that is different. Yet he was hoping to damage Chik-Fil-A’s business. If asked beforehand I’ll bet he would have wanted to shut down Chik-Fil-A which would mean ALL of its employees would lose their jobs because of the opinion of the CEO which they may or may not share. A bit hypocritical, no?

In addition to the public relations fiasco, I would have fired him for:

1. being an idiot
2. being a bully
3. having terrible judgment
4. being so self-absorbed that he thinks everything is about him.

Seriously, what did he think he was going to accomplish? What was the whole point of making the video. (Hint: Me, me, me.) Did he show the slightest empathy or humanity toward the server? No. Although she looks to be much, much younger than he is, she had remarkable composure and demonstrated grace under pressure.

76
posted on 08/04/2012 3:07:49 PM PDT
by generally
(Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that.)

Not necessarily....she could be afraid of the idiot. Just think of the people that go on a shooting rampage when their stupidity gets them in trouble and they take it out on others. I don’t blame her a bit for not going anywhere near him.

Hey Stal..”So, this whole Smith thing turns out to be nothing about gay. Its all about rabid atheism, and the zeal of a new convert to darkness.”

I have been saying this all along. This whole thing is a media-orchestrated attack on Christianity. The media twisted an interview, through in some garbage re how the Southern Poverty Law Center says the groups CFA supports have an active squash gay rights agenda then the media and politicians went about painting the CFA owner as some rabid anti-gay monster! It’s insane!

It’s like saying, I have a dog and support the AKC,,,then having the media twist that into saying I hate cats and work with groups who are anti-cat. It’s nuts.

The media has wayyy too much power...and that bunch is scarier than President O

Hey Stal..”So, this whole Smith thing turns out to be nothing about gay. Its all about rabid atheism, and the zeal of a new convert to darkness.”

I have been saying this all along. This whole thing is a media-orchestrated attack on Christianity. The media twisted an interview, through in some garbage re how the Southern Poverty Law Center says the groups CFA supports have an active squash gay rights agenda then the media and politicians went about painting the CFA owner as some rabid anti-gay monster! It’s insane!

It’s like saying, I have a dog and support the AKC,,,then having the media twist that into saying I hate cats and work with groups who are anti-cat. It’s nuts.

The media has wayyy too much power...and that bunch is scarier than President O

Adam Smith will you please go away? Just go away. Oh and Mr. Smith, I believe Neal Boortz was correct about you. A. You are a douchebag. and B. Vante wanted a reason to get rid of you for a long time and when you did this they said "YES!" then canned you!! Don't know who Neal Boortz is? Well you have all the time in the world to find out!

“Not necessarily....she could be afraid of the idiot. Just think of the people that go on a shooting rampage when their stupidity gets them in trouble and they take it out on others. I dont blame her a bit for not going anywhere near him.”

I never considered that. He is “out there” after all. He could retaliate since he lost his job. Could also be Chick-Fil-A told her to stay away from him.

Not everyone who took offense at leftist presumption and Stalinesque heavy-handedness in attacking a privately owned business for the constitutionally protected speech of that company's CEO, is a Christian or even religious at all.

Therefore, the typical, excessive behavior associated with leftists, ie death threats, can occur due to there being no moral guiding force to prohibit such behavior as far as such individuals are concerned.

Has it actually been clearly established, though, that death threats have even been received by this man, let alone anyone having actually ascertained the religious beliefs of those communicating such? Or, is it all presumption, yet again, intended to put Christians in as negative a light as possible?

mr Smiths children will perhaps learn a valuable lesson about the consequences of not controlling one’s temper, tongue & judging. maybe those who know him or his family might explain to them the principle of reciprocity.

“When the scoffer is punished, the naive[simple] becomes wise; But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.”
Prov 21:11 NAS

“The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.”
Prov 10:11 NAS

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. 38Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measurepressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return. Luke 6:37 NAS

92
posted on 08/04/2012 11:25:28 PM PDT
by Psalm_2
(Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21 NASB)

He got what he wanted five minutes of fame..Now he has to deal with it..These fags want people to believe the whole world will bow down to them,well they are finding out it ant so.We do not go out of our way to cuss and abuse fags we leave it alone until they start it with us..

It will be if Obama gets reelected,we will be bowing to communist,fags, black panthers, and the lot of the filthy of this world..

Don't concern troll here; especially rank coming from someone that reduces Israel's enemies to animals: "Thank God that Israel has already won this war many times. Its animal killing time." Even Israeli's don't do that, because to do so would be an egregious underestimation of the cognizant evil behind jihad.

If Smith did receive a credible threat, the entire Tucson LEO community is there for him to reach out to. So where is the proof of that? If he can't provide proof to The Blaze, it's a certainty you can't. There's no evidence other than Smith's word. And he is a proven liar, as he told The Blaze, 'I never posted videos to YT before that one hurr durr oh wait yes I did, a lot of them actually and I even posted a video of me interrogating a Cross-carrying man on Good Friday'.

Considering this individual's now documented inability to admit that he is to blame for his problems, coupled with his self-stated inability to control his emotions and his temper, I fear for his wife and children in particular.

To me, it is not a stretch of the imagination to visualize his wife and/or one of his children asking "why did you do that?", followed by a violent reaction from him, and their lives being snuffed out.

I pray that they will be safe, and I pray that he will not direct his anger and frustration towards them.

97
posted on 08/05/2012 10:44:12 AM PDT
by Col Freeper
(FR: A smorgasbord of Conservative Mindfood - dig in and enjoy it to its fullest!)

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